They’d had two or three looks and then finally headed in his direction.

None of this was unusual for Ablett. He’d dealt with the stares and strangers coming up to him all his life, part of the territory when you’re the son of an AFL legend and on track to being one yourself.

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But this was different.

He wasn’t in Pakington St in Geelong, he was on the Gold Coast.

“It was in the first few weeks I was up there and I was walking through the shopping centre and I could tell a guy had recognised me and he’d given me a look two or three times,” Ablett explains.

“He ended up walking up to me and said, ‘I know your face from somewhere’.

“I had a bit of a chuckle to myself and said: ‘Yeah, Bruce Willis’.”

Bruce Willis and Gary Ablett? Yep, the bald heads, the ability to take on the baddies and always seem to come out on top. We can see that.

It’s a good line, but one he won’t be using again anytime soon.

There aren’t many places to hide in Geelong at the best of times, let alone when you’re the biggest name in town.

Even as he’s retelling the story about his double life as a Hollywood superstar, nestled at the back of a cafe inside

Kardinia Park, the fans are seeking him out.

The photo request is the first of many for the day: “Hi Gazza, I just had my first grandson and I am about to sign him up for Geelong. Could I have a photo with you mate?”

Ablett smiles, something which he has been doing a lot of in the past three months since his second coming as a Geelong player was confirmed.

“Congratulations,” he says.

“Can I finish this interview and then I will do it after that. No worries at all.”

While a number of teammates are slowly drifting past on their way inside for the early-morning summer session, Ablett is already in his kit, ready to go.

He’s excited — something he says at least 20 times during the interview — even about this regulation training run.

During his seven years on the Gold Coast, Ablett won a second Brownlow Medal, four best-and-fairest awards and was the new franchise’s inaugural captain.

While he was sunning himself up north, Geelong hired a new coach, won a premiership in 2011 (the year after he left) and recruited Patrick Dangerfield, who won the club its seventh Brownlow.

So how has his return been received? The locker room feels the same, even though there are only five players left from his final year. There are some familiar faces on the coaching panel though in premiership teammates Matthew Scarlett and Corey Enright.

“I love coming back here,” he says.

“I had been in the game nine years and I was lucky enough to have a lot of success, but I just needed that change. Now, I’m just excited to be back. There has been a lot of people that have come up to me in the streets and are wishing me good luck for this year.

“They have been so supportive and I’m just so thankful for that.”

The process to return to where it all started back in 2002 hasn’t been an easy one.

At the end of 2016 he requested a trade back for family reasons, but it didn’t eventuate and instead resulted in a lot of criticism directed his way.

Then when injuries again cruelled his 2017 season, there were questions about Ablett’s desire to play, which then morphed into a negative undertone about what legacy he was leaving on the Gold Coast.

He admits there was a time where he lost his passion for the game as the Suns struggled — 12th was their best finish — and as he came towards the twilight of his career he knew he needed to find it again.

“I think you all go through those stages whether you’re a professional athlete or you’re working another job where there are parts of your job that you don’t enjoy,” he says.

“For me it was about working out what I needed to do to make sure I was enjoying every training session, and even come game day that I am enjoying getting out there.

“I think that is important, you need to be having fun with whatever you’re doing.

So does one of the greatest players of the modern era feel like he has a point to prove?

Ablett pauses: “I don’t feel I have got a point to prove. I think for me, as a lot of people know, I am a very competitive person and I’m just excited about getting out there. I know I have still got some really good footy left in my body.”

He then adds: “I didn’t come back here just to finish my career off and play a few more games. I have come down here to play finals and to win a premiership.”

FOR Colin Carter there were a couple of obvious questions, the first centring around the fact they were recruiting a 33-year-old.

But as the Geelong president points out, there are exceptions to every rule and he puts Ablett alongside tennis great Roger Federer and NFL superstar Tom Brady in the age discussion.

“There are people who are freaks,” Carter says.

“Look at Tom Brady, he’s 40, and Roger Federer, most of us fall off the cliff before that, but not everybody does.

“That was one aspect of the discussion, but I was also particularly interested about whether the players wanted him back, and I don’t think there is any doubt they’re pleased about it.

“The thing that we also know is that one player doesn’t win you a premiership. We won one after he left (in 2011) and Hawthorn won two after Buddy (Franklin) left.

“But having a champion player there certainly helps you, and we’re keeping a lid on it.”

Geelong CEO Brian Cook knew it would never be negative, but admits he’s been pleasantly surprised at how the return of the favourite son has been received.

“I think it has been a bit more positive than I thought,” Cook says.

“There seems to be a strong belief to embrace Gary here in Geelong, even though he left us a few years back, and I think that’s because of the cause of his comeback.

“He has come back to play at his very best, he’s come back to be with his family and his wife.

“I think the reason for him coming back fits into what I think are the community values we have in Geelong.

“And of course the whole Ablett family and its endearment to so many people here probably helps as well,” he says.

“It’s a combination of factors but by and large I think he’s come home for the right reasons and people perceive that.”

Ablett, who at one stage was earning more than $1.5 million a season at the Suns, is playing for around the average AFL wage — about $350,000-$450,000.

As his long-time manager, Liam Pickering, points out: “If he was going to play for money he would have stayed at the Gold Coast”.

Geelong’s membership is up by 10 per cent — nine home games in 2018 is also part of that equation, but there is clearly an Ablett spike.

The Cats’ merchandise shop has been hit. Having enough jumpers wasn’t the problem, running out of No. 4 was.

While Andrew Mackie was a fan favourite, the demand for his number went to another level when his former teammate inherited it.

But while the city is buzzing, as is the man himself, there is a sad backdrop to Ablett coming home.

In October Natasha Ablett, the oldest of Gary Ablett Sr’s four children, died after a decade-long battle with mental illness.

Her issues were part of the reason her brother wanted to return to Geelong 12 months earlier.

“I think the cynicism that I detected out there about why he came back dissipated pretty much when the truth of his sister’s situation, the tragedy of that, came out,” Carter says.

Ablett has always been intensely private as he dealt with being the son of one of the most famous and controversial figures in AFL history.

He remains reluctant to talk about his family, but admits being back home has helped the famous clan move forward after Natasha’s death.

“It’s been great to be back around family,” he says.

Ablett and his wife, Jordan, have settled in Geelong, though they’re renting with the long-term goal to build a family home down the coast at Jan Juc.

He has been blown away by the changes to the city and surrounding areas, with new suburbs popping up on the way to Torquay where he previously lived.

“It’s crazy how much the place has changed,” he says.

He has also changed significantly and when asked if he can remember the Gary Ablett who left Geelong in 2010, he needs some think music.

“He had a bit more hair,” he says.

“Actually I don’t know about that. I don’t think he did, it was gone long before that.”

While financially the move to the Suns was irresistible, it was also about his development as a person.

“I think it was a really good thing for me. I feel I really did grow as a person. I took myself out of my comfort zone, I didn’t know anyone on the Gold Coast at the time,” he says.

“I have said many times as well, if I had my time again I wouldn’t change my decision.”

PATRICK Dangerfield is like a fan living out a childhood dream. He loves Ablett, always has, and can’t hide his excitement after spending the past few months up close and personal with the Cats’ new recruit.

Dangerfield recalls a session before Christmas where a summer storm hit, sending players and footballs slipping and sliding everywhere.

“Gazza was wearing runners and was totally unfazed, he was the only one keeping his feet. It was unbelievable,” he says.

“I’m too scared to say he has lost anything because he has been better than anyone else on the track at the moment.”

Ablett’s work ethic on the training track has always brought some raised eyebrows, and news that he hadn’t missed a session at Geelong apparently floored a senior Gold Coast player.

This perception clearly rankles the eight-time All-Australian.

“I think there is this perception for whatever reason ... when I first came into the league as any young kid, you are learning what it takes to be a professional footballer,” he says.

“I think the first couple of years I tried to survive with my talent and I think part of that is my upbringing was always kind of very relaxed. I don’t think there was a lot of structure in my life.

“So when I get to a football club where there is routine, there is that structure, it was a new experience for me.

“I think to get the best out of yourself it’s not just about going out and training hard in a training session, it’s about doing everything right, that’s your recovery, your diet, your sleeping.

“I am big on that. I see so many guys come into the competition and they put the time in doing the extras, but they’re not doing them right.

“I’m all about quality over quantity. I do the research, I learn how to do things properly and I put the time in and I think that’s been a big part of why I have been able to have the success I have had.”

So how are Ablett, Dangerfield and captain Joel Selwood — three champions three ball magnets, three big egos — going to work together?

And maybe the even bigger question is — will the focus on the big three come at the detriment of other players?

This is a sensitive issue inside the walls of Kardinia Park. They don’t want Ablett coming in and resulting in the output of Mitch Duncan or Sam Menegola decreasing.

“On one hand we acknowledge the significance of Gary’s arrival, but on the other hand we also have to keep a grasp on it,” Cook explains.

“We have to make sure that he is seen, as best we can internally, as part of the team.

“How do you make sure you develop the team? That is something people like Gary, Danger and Sel have been talking about, ‘How do we bring the others on?’”

Ablett describes Dangerfield as a “ripper”.

“The one thing about Patty is he comes in to work hard, comes in to always try and improve his game but at the same time he’s about having fun, he is a relaxed guy, and I think that has been really good for the group,” he says.

“I have already taken a lot away from him in the first couple of months I have been here and I’m definitely looking forward to playing with him.”

And it’s in the midfield where Ablett wants to do it, though he concedes his exact role is an ongoing discussion with coach Chris Scott.

“I still believe I have got some good footy left in the midfield, but I have to prove that over the pre-season,” he says.

“I have to make sure I get out there and do the work, prove that I can still keep up. It’s something Scotty and I will continue to talk about, as we’ve got so many players who can rotate through the midfield and the forward line.

“I think Scotty is going to have a bit of fun this year, that’s for sure.”

HIKING is Ablett’s escape.

“I love getting out and just being out with nature,” he says.

He hasn’t been able to surf as much as he used to because of multiple shoulder injuries, but plans to sneak down to Moggs Creek with Dangerfield in the near future.

Spending time with family is his priority. “I love family time. I find it quite easy to switch off when I am away from the footy club,” he says.

“I think I have learnt that over the years. In the early days it was footy, footy, footy. I would have watched every single game, Friday night, Saturday and Sunday.

“These days I might watch a Friday night game if it is a blockbuster, but outside of that I like to switch off.”

When the end comes — and he still thinks that’s two or three years away — he’s likely to step away from football for a few years.

He has a number of different business opportunities to explore, including the Exclusive Insight website, which is a forum for athletes to tell their stories in their own words.

And then of course there is that acting career ... and the next Die Hard movie.